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KickStarter Solasta Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

Darkzone

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Or they can focus on the game, like they said, and potentially release another demo when all of those details are nailed down and it comes a lot closer to launch time. Splitting focus in development or having to backport changes costs productivity.
Didn't you get from my previous post that this is not a problem by choosing another GameInstance? The Demo is then a different build of the same project with the same GameMode, DefautlPawn, HUD, PlayerController, GameState, PlayerState and Spectator. Also in the Project Settings you can determine the Startup Map, Game Default Map and Transition Map. To set all this in the Project Settings you need just under 1 minute.
 

Myzzrym

Tactical Adventures
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I'd say the demo is not going to be representative of the final game, especially with all the work they have to do with the camera, and further refinement of the systems. The demo served its purpose in getting people excited for Solasta and succeed in funding. At this point, however, it would not reflect the game as it reaches more and more of a polished state.

Pretty much nailed it.

Didn't you get from my previous post that this is not a problem by choosing another GameInstance? The Demo is then a different build of the same project with the same GameMode, DefautlPawn, HUD, PlayerController, GameState, PlayerState and Spectator. Also in the Project Settings you can determine the Startup Map, Game Default Map and Transition Map. To set all this in the Project Settings you need just under 1 minute.

Unfortunately not that easy, or we would have done it. It's all I'm going to say about that.

Myzzrym Any plans to add a Bladesinger equivalent and/or another gish subclass?

Fighter Spellblade Archetype is gish afaik, not sure about the other way around though (I don't believe we have a Martial archetype for Wizards).
 

Darkzone

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Didn't you get from my previous post that this is not a problem by choosing another GameInstance? The Demo is then a different build of the same project with the same GameMode, DefautlPawn, HUD, PlayerController, GameState, PlayerState and Spectator. Also in the Project Settings you can determine the Startup Map, Game Default Map and Transition Map. To set all this in the Project Settings you need just under 1 minute.
Unfortunately not that easy, or we would have done it. It's all I'm going to say about that.
I'm experienced with UE4, so i know what i speak about. But i will add here, that this is dependent on how you structure a project. A good structure makes an project flexible to changes with good overview of the required places of change, while a bad project structure does the opposite. Nevertheless from a friend of mine: "Thank you for the Steam Demo Idea".
 

Fairfax

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Fighter Spellblade Archetype is gish afaik, not sure about the other way around though (I don't believe we have a Martial archetype for Wizards).
Oh, I see. Is the spellblade a half caster or third caster? (Or hasn't been revealed yet?) A Wizard gish would be nice, the full caster gish kits in 5E are a lot of fun in general.
 

Elex

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fighter and rogue have 1/3 caster subclasses.
the arcane halfcaster in 5e is the artificer.

a fighter halfcaster will be broken.
 

Cryomancer

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The devs of Solasta are going to upload the Solasta game Archetypes in D&DBeyond for testing purposes.

The first one is https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/281440-battle-domain-solasta

D&D beyond said:
"
Einar’s clerics train with all kinds of weapons, and are usually impressive combatants. They can hold their own against seasoned warriors under most circumstances. Senior clerics of Einar can attack with almost blinding speed. Among their other powers are the abilities to boost their health temporarily before entering battle, and to channel the power of Einar into a decisive strike that deals enormous damage and often leaves their enemy stunned for a time."

I found it a amazing idea. They get free publicity, community engagement and his people debate more their classes...

The unique thing that i don't know if will be good is

-----------------------------------

The game will have gender locked classes? I mean, all martial classes on the demo was male and all magical classes female. I an just wondering.
 

Elex

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that cleric domain is extremely broken and op.
the domain spell list is basically "take all the good wizard spells" and the extra attack and temporary HP make the cleric equivalent to a martial.
 

Cryomancer

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hat cleric domain is extremely broken and op.
the domain spell list is basically "take all the good wizard spells" and the extra attack and temporary HP make the cleric equivalent to a martial.

Divine casters always was more powerful than arcane casters and martial classes...
 

Cryomancer

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that's because arcane casters wear dresses like betas

Not only armor, divine casters have more hit points, weapon proficiency, best saves, self heal ability, self restore attributes, etc. Not mentioning general better spells.

Animate dead on 2e was gotten earlier for clerics than for arcane casters
On NWN1, the best OHK spell that bypass death effect immunity and have AOE effect(Implosion) was restricted to divine casters.
On 5e, while sorcerer can gain 4 sorcery points back at lv 20 per rest, clerics can call divine intervention without fail. At 5th level, they can insta destroy undead that fails their turn undead saves.

I only play more as arcane casters because i found they more "fun" to play. The fantasy of having power is more interesting for me than the fantasy of worshiping a deity
 

Elex

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no the point is that in 5e clerics have 2 different directions in domains:

1.caster domains: medium armor, simple weapons, have improved cantrips and a list of good domain spells some time stuff from other classes like the arcana or nature domains

2. martial domains: heavy armor or martial weapons (sometime both), have divine strike (extra magical damage with weapon attack) and domain spell are generally cleric/paladin spell.

and not a single cleric domain have extra attack: even war domain have only a bonus action attack usable only a number of time equivalent to the wis modifier.

divine caster and arcane caster in 5e are strong but not like in other edition, they are limited by concentration so they can’t cast all the buff and become unstoppable because of that.
 

Infinitron

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New development updates starting next week: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tacticaladventures/solasta-crown-of-the-magister/posts/2660365

Archetypes available on D&D Beyond, Pledge Manager Update and more!

Hello there fine folks!

Here are the latest news from the Tactical Adventures crew.

D&D Beyond

As promised during the Kickstarter Campaign, the four Archetypes revealed in the Pre-Alpha Demo are now available on D&D Beyond Homebrew! You will find:
  • The Battle Domain (Cleric)
  • The Darkweaver (Rogue)
  • The Mountaineer (Fighter)
  • The Shock Arcanist (Wizard)
Disclaimer: This is a non final version of these archetypes.The Features listed may change, and some may differ between tabletop version (Solasta Campaign Rulebook) and final video game (Solasta: Crown of the Magister) due to balancing issues.

Pledge Manager & Dropped Backers - CrowdOx
1e117a97cfa4051f03e4d5b053f5a73e_original.png

For most of you out there who had payment issues with Kickstarter, it seems your problems have been solved! If it's not the case and you're among the rare few whose credit card was declined continuously by Kickstarter, do not worry - you will be able to join again directly on our Pledge Manager CrowdOx when we send the survey.

As for the survey, we will likely be sending it towards the End of November rather than the start of November. I know, I know, it's a little later than we originally wanted! If you want to know why, it's because we want to make sure we get the best Shipping Fees for all physical items per country. Some of you might know that Essen Spiel - THE largest EU Tabletop & Boardgame Convention - is right around the corner, so manufacturers are quite overwhelmed at the moment and it takes a bit of time to get the answers we need.

On the bright side, no need to worry - we still have plenty of time before us. We'll make sure to inform you here when the Survey goes live!

Development Updates
474a8d47dd1fb83912aacee5c8b0e2cd_original.png

From next week onward, we'll start doing Development Updates on a weekly basis again on our Website and on Steam. We will only be doing Monthly Recaps on Kickstarter so you get the information without getting spammed with emails every week, but if you want to follow our development more closely don't hesitate to follow us on Steam, Facebook and Twitter to be notified when a new article drops!

You can also join our growing Discord Community, filled with wonderful people, heated debates on which class / archetype / race / alignment is the best, and of course sweet, delicious memes.

Cheers!
 

Dorateen

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Mountaineer it is for me. If Solasta allows advancement to 10th level, I'd like to see this feature implemented.

Shield Charge
At 10th level, after successfully shoving an opponent prone with your Shield Bash Feature, you can use a Bonus Action to smash your fallen foe with your shield, automatically dealing damage equal to your Fighter Level. The opponent must make a Constitution Saving Throw (DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + STR Modifier) or be stunned until the start of your next turn.
 

Lacrymas

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Messages
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Pathfinder: Wrath
I like the premise of this game, but the aesthetic and UI kinda ruin it for me. And it uses the cover system from the nuX-Coms, at least that's what is shown in the trailer.
 

Reinhardt

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Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,247
Mountaineer it is for me. If Solasta allows advancement to 10th level, I'd like to see this feature implemented.

Shield Charge
At 10th level, after successfully shoving an opponent prone with your Shield Bash Feature, you can use a Bonus Action to smash your fallen foe with your shield, automatically dealing damage equal to your Fighter Level. The opponent must make a Constitution Saving Throw (DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + STR Modifier) or be stunned until the start of your next turn.
You should be able to bash enemies from the ledge or, if you lucky, miss and fall yourself.
 

Elex

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rogue look weak (unless every single fight of the game allow him to jump on enemies)
tunnel fighter: lv 3 is a little strange (the subclass cleary require streng and give advantage to athletics so is probally better to go heavy armor instead of medium) overall look line and balanced.
shock arcanist: proficiency+stat +free up casting make fireball and aoe insane. ultimate shock can end a fight with 1 spell.
 

Cryomancer

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shock arcanist: proficiency+stat +free up casting make fireball and aoe insane. ultimate shock can end a fight with 1 spell.

Yes, but other high level spells can do that too. Mainly because 5e tends to be much unbalanced to players. For eg, a sorcerer of undead bloodline can cast tier 7 spells and use metamagic, something that his vampire ancestor of CR 13 can't do ( https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Vampire#content ) , this not mentioning that once a player drop bellows 0 hit points, he needs to be hit 3 times to die, while mobs are not subjected to the same rule. 3.5e was more fair with unconscious and death depending on hos much damage you took, a fighter on 5e that fail unconscious can be hit by 3 Poisoned Javelins trowed by a giant and stand up with a lesser cure wounds, the game rules don't care if is a kitchen knife wound or a ballista firing explosive "arrows" in the fighter..

rogue look weak (unless every single fight of the game allow him to jump on enemies)
You should be able to bash enemies from the ledge or, if you lucky, miss and fall yourself.

Since the propouse of Solasta is to explore more verticality, i an happy to see that at least one of their homebrew classes explore more verticality. IMO Rogue and Fighter should receive a climb speed equal to half of their running speed.
 

Dorateen

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Developer diary on Level Building: https://www.solasta-game.com/news/45-dev-diary-6-what-is-level-building

DEV DIARY #6 - WHAT IS LEVEL BUILDING?

You often hear about LD (Level Design) when reading about Game Development - but what about LB (Level Build)? What is Level Building? Did you even know it existed? In this article, we've asked Tactical Error to give us more insight about this very important step.


Level Building is all the steps between the functional level made by the Level Designer, and the actual level that you'll see in-game. To put it simply, it would be like "dressing up" a bare bone level following the vision of the Art Director, while still respecting the constraints from the Gameplay Director. It may sound easy, but there's actually quite a lot to keep in mind - such as making sure the "decorations" don't impede the player when they move through the level. How many of you had a "Wait, I was supposed to go through THERE?!" moment when playing a video game in the past? So, you need to both keep Gameplay Mechanics clear... while also not ruining the immersion with props (items) that look like they don't belong to the level.

H7NOACDy11drHLdpTt7DTnRn4BwCOmIDr62EhRIJ.png


See this ray of sunlight and the vines crawling down? The goal is to attract the player's attention immediately when he passes by.

It all starts with the Gameplay Director giving a technical brief of the level. What's the idea behind it, what gameplay mechanics the player will have to use, basically what the purpose of that level is. From there on, the Level Builder will start writing a document listing the assets he needs to dress up the level. To ensure his vision stays in line with the Art Director, the Concept Artists will usually draw a Concept Art, and the Art Director puts together a Mood Board - most often a mash up of many visual references found online to help getting a better idea of what the level should look like in the end.

6h6UQ1YLeEl2C67HH0hCRt3fppC0M5RHURJTUxIA.png


Concept Art - Ruins of Telema (Entrance)

In the meantime, the Level Designer creates a skeleton of the level with cubes in Unity. It is a very important step as we need to start testing the gameplay inside the level as soon as possible - especially in a game like Solasta where verticality is key. Doing so early ensures we don't run into very obvious issues later on, such as "the room is way too small for the encounter", or "this fight is too easy due to the layout of the room". We call this step "Whiteboxing", where the Level Designer basically plays with the equivalent of Lego bricks to make an engaging level gameplay-wise.

jHjFOpIociBDTZYaI8JxOAB4lkICgKQSMAm6mWZj.jpeg


I knew it! Spending my childhood playing with Lego was worth it!

Every cube contains gameplay information required to make the level playable and represents a visual element that will need to be implemented in the final version. For instance, some cubes may prevent both movement and vision (wall) while others may prevent movement but allow vision (fence). Some may be climbable (crate) while others may not (statue). And even though they all look the same, the entire level (even in this state!) is playable from start to finish, and includes most important interactive elements such as doors and traps.

Now since Solasta isn't a Minecraft mod, we can't just leave the level in its Whitebox state. It's up to the Level Builder to start making everything pretty.

zrKY7PPdgPxwqKPu2Fkd5KrNZwYhWpUoiEpYfRND.jpeg


Fantastic, that's perfect. I think we can ship it.

When the Level Builder starts working, it's fairly common that not every visual asset for that level is available yet. This is why we have an additional step with temporary, placeholder assets. It helps transitioning from the cube mindset to a more visual one - what the player will actually see. Every cube gets replaced, giving a better grasp on props dimensions and glance value - is it immediately clear for the player that they can't move through this tile? If not, is it because the prop is too small? Or does it just not look like something that would block your movement?

r6auQv4FJ8oFOJwqtx7VQ1lVrrg7Z7CSulod9Yz7.jpeg


Slowly getting there...

From there on, the 3D Artist slowly works to replace all these temporary assets with usable ones, with the help of Concept Arts and Mood Boards to make sure they stay in line with the Art Director. Walls, floors, rubble, lamps, chairs, mugs... Everything that's needed to bring the level to life! But on top of having to make it look pretty, the Level Builder also has to ensure that the player will understand the level. That they immediately see what areas are reachable, so that they don't get frustrated by getting stuck. Or what areas aren't, so that they don't try to go somewhere that isn't accessible for 20 minutes.

eOSChqqGfRpp03pP9My6cWUgBpoeiGhMH5kf97DN.jpeg


Almost there... Not yet...

At the end of the day, making a level is a huge team effort. From the original brief from the Gameplay Director and the visual target from the Art Director, to the Whitebox cubic level made by the Level Designer, the Level Builder dressing it up, the 3D Artist making the props... It's still not over though. If you take a look at the previous image, something is still missing - and that something is very important. Lighting! At Tactical Adventures Lighting is handled by our Art Director, who does another pass to make sure everything looks extra crispy. There's also a lot of invisible work in the background by our Programmers, who are constantly adding new tools to help make the process simpler, as well as new parameters to tweak the visual effects.

sESxzKW1iF00nA60SDNG3wmOm9hlqXQUYXF0eaG2.jpeg


And here we are! This prison is considered v1 (first pass), and will likely get polished again later - but it already looks pretty nice!

That's it for today! Hope you enjoyed the article and that you learned something new! Don't hesitate to drop a word on our Forums or on Discord, and ask if you have any questions!
 
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Lacrymas

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Messages
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Pathfinder: Wrath
I don't know, the visuals of this game just look ...ugly to me, I guess. Or inelegant and unaesthetic. It feels like staring into a black hole. The concept art isn't much better. Verticality sounds like a gimmick.
 

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